1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of recording image information and reproducing control information into an information recording medium, particularly relates to a recording method and a reproducing apparatus, which execute other pieces of reproducing control information, a command or the like which is further defined in the reproducing control information, and an information recording medium thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) has been developed as a high-density recording medium, a DVD-Video system in which the image information is recorded into a DVD has been established, and a reproducing apparatus compatible with DVD-Video system is widely spreading.
With reference to the prior art of DVD-Video system, there is known Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 8-339665 which discloses “an information recording medium capable of performing interactive reproduction and its reproducing system.” That is, the DVD-Video disk is configured to reproduce a video object (hereinafter referred to as VOB), which is material substance, on the basis of the reproducing control information called a program chain (hereinafter referred to as PGC).
A data structure in the DVD disk is broadly divided into VOB and PGC. The coded image information is recorded with speech (and sub-image information) in VOB. VOB is divided into reproducing units called cell. On the other hand, PGC includes a control command of a pre-command, a post-command, and a cell command and at least a zero program. Each program includes at least one cell, and the cell of VOB to be reproduced is specified in each cell.
In the case of the reproduction, the pre-command of the PGC is executed and a parameter is set as required in the reproducing apparatus. A branch command may be described in the pre-command. When the branch outside the PGC is specified by the command, the reproduction of the PGC is suspended and the reproduction of the branched PGC described in the command is started.
When the branch outside the PGC is not generated in the pre-command, the reproduction of the cell (to be more precise, the reproduction of the cell of the VOB specified by the cell of the PGC) is orderly and sequentially started from program No. 1. In the DVD-Video standard, the cell command can be also specified in each cell of the PGC. When the cell command is specified, the cell command is executed when the reproduction of the cell is finished. When the reproduction up to the final cell is completed by sequentially executing such reproduction of the cell, the post-command of the PGC is executed. The branch command may be also described even in the post-command. When the branch outside the PGC is specified by the command, the reproduction of the PGC is suspended and the reproduction of the branched PGC described in the command is started.
When the branch is not generated in the post-command, presence or absence of the next PGC is decided. When the next PGC is specified, the branch to the specified PGC is executed. When the next PGC is not specified, the reproduction is finished.
However, in the above-described prior art, transition of the PGC reproduction is limited because the transition of the PGC reproduction is defined only by the pre-command, the post-command, and the cell command.
For example, in the disk in which a movie or the like is recorded, an original story is recorded as PGC No. 1 and a value-added image (hereinafter referred to as VAM) such as making the story is recorded as PGC No. 2 in a title space. After the reproducing image is transited to the VAM by a button operation in the original story, in the case that a user executes a resuming operation when a menu is called from the VAM and the menu is displayed on the screen, the reproducing image is transited to PGC No. 2, which is finally reproduced in the title space, namely the VAM. Since no command can be executed to the resuming operation and resuming information can not be changed in the current DVD standard, even if a disk manufacturing side considers reproducing the image of the original story (PGC No. 1) in such a case, the disk manufacturing side can not realize it.
When the user does not operate the menu for a certain period in the reproduction, even if the disk manufacturing side considers reproducing the image previously prepared (such as a screen saver), the disk manufacturing side can not realized it because the command realizing it can not be recorded. Thus, in the DVD-Video standard, since the arbitrary command can not be allocated to the PGC information, there is a problem that action in the reproduction and the like are limited and the action which the disk manufacturing side desires can not be set.